It was not my intention to do the exact same hike that I did in 2018 but sometimes things do not work out as you expect.
I wanted to return to Mt. Shasta. The biggest problem I was anticipating was smoke. Mt. Shasta was getting a double whammy. Smoke from the Park Fire as well as smoke from a fire in Oregon. It was caught right in the middle. The air quality was hovering between yellow and orange all week long. Not good. I did not want to drive 5 hours to the trailhead and then realize it was too smoky to hike. However, on Friday it seemed as though it might be clearing up for Saturday. I decided to take a chance.
I swear the road to Northgate trailhead is much worse than it was in 2018. I don’t remember it being that bad at all. It took a full hour to drive 8.5 miles. You do the math. The last 2 miles especially were extremely rough. I did not feel comfortable driving it, not so much due to the clearance, but mostly because I was afraid of getting a flat tire on all the very sharp rocks. Nonetheless, I made it to the trailhead successfully. I was shocked to see there were a couple low clearance cars here including a small Kia Soul. What the heck? There is no way on God’s green earth you should be driving a low clearance car to this trailhead. Maybe you could do it six years ago (indeed, I did see some small cars on that trip), but not anymore. If this small Kia did not bottom out multiple times on the drive to the trailhead and back I will eat my dirty socks. (not really, but I think it would be a safe bet).
Good news. There was no smoke! My entire hike was smoke free. That was a big relief to me.
Now as for why I wanted to return here, the first reason was this: (1) Coquette Falls. But Coquette Falls is dead, isn’t it? Yeah … you are right, it is dead … HOWEVER … I saw a photo that was taken from Sept. 2023. It was of Upper Coquette Falls and it had water. I pondered this for a long time. How is this possible? Is it because of the huge snow year we had in 2023 and it was flowing from regular snow melt? I am certain this was the case. I was last here in August of 2018, a drought year, and of course Coquette was dry. Since 2024 was an average snow year and since I was going more than a month earlier than the photo, I thought perhaps it was possible Coquette would still be flowing. When I came across a small stream along the way (dry six years ago) and it had decent water in it I thought I just might be in luck. Surely Coquette Creek is much bigger than this small stream. But alas, Coquette was completely dry. It was a bit disappointing even if it was not too surprising.
The second reason was this: (2) Whitney Creek waterfalls. My actual plan was to cross Bolam Creek and continue to Whitney Creek and camp there. HOWEVER … I was dead tired by the time I reached Bolam Creek. I could not continue any further. Is this hike really so difficult? It is only a 1500 ft. elevation gain and that section was all on trail. The elevation tops out at 8500 ft. so I don’t really think it was the high elevation that was getting to me (though perhaps a bit). I think I am just too much out of shape but also I had a very heavy pack and was carrying 5 liters of water as I anticipated not being able to filter water from the creeks. It was another 3 miles to Middle Whitney Falls where I was initially planning to camp. I am sure I could have made it there but then it would be an additional 2 miles and 1000 ft. elevation gain down to Whitney Falls and back which was the primary reason I wanted to go over to Whitney Creek. There is absolutely no way I would have been able to do that. Also I wanted to explore further UP Whitney Creek and there is also no way I could have done that either. I only had one night to spend. Thus, it seemed pointless to continue to Whitney so I decided to camp at Bolam Creek again and have an enjoyable afternoon.
The nice thing is that it was a very cloudy day so I could get all my photos of the Bolam waterfalls early and have a relaxing evening and even sleep in. First up was Bolam Creek Falls, 92 ft. high. As you can see the water was very dirty. Chocolate sauce! Yummy! It was definitely very interesting and quite different from six years ago and I’m not just referring to the chocolate water. I think a lot of that was caused from rain up on the mountain. It was a lot dirtier than last time I was here so I think it was more than just glacial melt. In addition to this the waterfall seemed different. It was more of a straight down plunge. It was more graceful (even with the dirty water). One thing that was very different was the blue-green color in the rock beside the waterfall. That was not there six years ago. A large chunk of rock had broken off revealing that blue-green color underneath. My geologist brother-in-law thinks it is some sort of hydrothermal alteration and magmatic flow. Finally, I think there was more water flowing six years ago so that could mean there is not as much glacier melting now (or left). Bolam Creek Falls was certainly very fascinating to see this year.
It is about a 400 ft. ascent from Bolam Creek Falls back to camp. I really struggled climbing up. I was so tired. When I returned to camp it started raining so I hung out in my tent awhile and chatted with my wife (I had cell service). After the rain stopped the sun came out and I made my dinner and enjoyed my evening. More to come …
Two days later and I was back at Table Mountain once more. No Journey this time because I was planning to do some difficult scrambling.
Once again I got in between the rain storms. It was somewhat sunny when I started out, but the rain was on its way. There were quite a few cows out in the field but they left me alone this time. That is the way I like it. No stress. A relaxing and beautiful morning on Table Mountain. I even saw a coyote out in the field running amongst the cows.
I arrived at Ranch Falls (aka Long Falls). The water flow was significantly reduced from two days prior. It was only two days! This was a bit upsetting. It was almost not worth it now but my plan was to go to the bottom of Ranch Falls, something I’ve been wanting to try for a long time now.
My first attempt was a dud. I chose a path that was way too steep and cliffy. I could almost get down but it was just a bit too steep. I retreated back up the mountain. That is when I noticed a cow had come down the cliffs after me. I guess it wanted to see what the heck I was doing? What are you doing down here, cow? It scrambled back up when it saw me coming. My second attempt was much better. This route was not bad at all. Even Journey could have made it. The only problem? Poison oak. It was everywhere and it was unavoidable. Even though I washed thoroughly when I got home, I still got the itch. In my eye as well. That is the worst. My wife is like, you idiot! Why do you go hiking in these places where you know there is poison oak? Ummm, well I just can’t help it! I need more. I haven’t found what I’m looking for.
I mean, take a look at the photo. How could you not want to come here? Ranch Falls. What a beauty! 157 ft. high, a stunning tiered waterfall. I am sure people have been down here before but I do not know of anyone that has done it. It is an amazing spot. Now I just had to climb back up the mountain through all that poison oak. I arrived back at the car just as the rain was starting. It was a fantastic morning on Table Mountain.
I tried to get out in between the storms this weekend. One forecast said it would be cloudy all morning. The other said rain all morning. Which would it be? Neither! It boggles my mind why they can’t get the forecast correct two hours into the future. I arrived at the Table Mountain trailhead and it was sunny. Well not quite. Table Mountain was on the edge of the clouds, Oroville was clear. So it was still clouded over but I would be hiking to the west where there were no clouds. Would I make it in time? That is the question.
The answer is cows. Huh? You heard me. Cows. The cows this day were the worst I have ever seen them on Table Mountain. It started off all right. Journey and I made it down to Hollow Falls. I took a quick photo and we continued on. There is a new fence up blocking the official trail to Crevice Falls. I didn’t understand why there was a fence but I think I was about to find out. We came upon our first cows right in the middle of the trail. It was a narrow section and there was no way around them. I yelled at them to get a move on (mooov-on), and they started running away down the trail. At this sight, Journey thought the chase was on! She wanted to run after them. She really tried. She is so silly. We finally came to an open spot. The cows had stopped but now we could go around them. A couple of them started to charge us. I yelled at them to stop. We were caught in between two groups of cows. They wanted to get to their friends. To gang up on us. One of them started mooing very loudly. This alerted more cows in the bushes that I had not seen and they started running away down the trail. Journey felt this would be a good group to chase as well. We came to the Beatson crossing and the cows were again blocking our path. I thought if I could get across the creek we might leave them all behind. Since I could not get to the normal crossing, I crossed a bit earlier and started climbing up the hill. Again, more cows. Again, we were caught in between them and both sides started charging towards us. Again, I yelled at them. Once at the top of the hill we were finally onto wide open land. There were more cows up here as well, to my chagrin, but we were able to go around them. Well around them. Well off the main trail. By this time I was quite stressed. The cows made me stressed. I felt like going back but there was really no path back except through the middle of them. We continued and finally arrived at Crevice Falls.
The sun was out now. I was able to take some photos of Crevice Falls before it got too bright. Now what should I do? I was not planning just to go here to Crevice Falls, I had an additional spot I wanted to try, but with the sun being out now and with all the cows, I just did not feel like going any further. In addition to this, I had decided I would go back the long way towards Phantom Falls since all the cows seemed to be congregating along the Crevice Falls trail. It would be a lot more mileage. I should have done that. However, when I got back to the Beatson crossing, there were no cows along the Crevice trail. Maybe they had all mooov-ed on? I decided to take a chance. Eventually we caught up to them and this time it was even worse. They were blocking the entire path. There was no way around them and they were not moving away when I yelled at them. We had to climb up the hill, through the brush and poison oak, and then back down to the trail once we got past them. I think I avoided touching the oak but Journey definitely touched it, so I hope I don’t get it from her. I was tired of all the cows. Journey was tired of the cows as well. If you know her, she would never get tired of seeing cows, but she was, so this tells you just how much and how bad the cows were today.
Finally we made it back to Hollow Falls where we had our lunch. It was a crazy day on Table Mountain.
This is of course the famous viewpoint at Little Phantom Falls with Phantom Falls in the background.
It is funny how this view has significantly changed. When I was last here the only way to see it was to climb out on a very dangerous rock outcrop with a huge dropoff. I chose not to do it that time because the rocks were very wet and slick. Also, the view of Little Phantom Falls by itself was only obtainable by crawling through poison oak and to the edge of a cliff. Now … ??? They have cleared away all the trees and poison oak and now anyone and their chihuahua can easily come to see Little Phantom Falls with the view of big old Phantom Falls in the background. Is this a good thing? You be the judge. You don’t need to climb out on the scary rock anymore although you still can do it. I did not this time because I had Journey with me but I’m not sure you would get a better view even if you did climb out on it.
The old man returns to Phantom Falls. It was my birthday. I took the day off work and went for a hike. To one of my favorite places. With Journey.
Journey is a high energy, high maintenance dog. That is not a bad thing, it is just the way she is. It is built into her genes from her breed. She will play fetch with mom for an hour non-stop and still not be tired. I don’t think I am exaggerating much. She loves her walks with daddy and also “needs” a walk every day. That’s not possible every day but I try to take her most days. I knew a 9 mile hike at North Table Mountain would not be a problem for her even though it was twice as long as anything we have done so far.
We arrived at sunrise. No one else was around. Yet. It is a very popular place, even in winter now. Even on a weekday. It never used to be popular in winter before. There were no cows around either. Yet. We began our journey to Phantom Falls.
I have to say I was disappointed with the amount of water flowing. I saw a photo from the 15th and it was flowing quite well. Since then they had 5 inches of rain. It should be absolutely amazing today. But alas, it was no better than the flow on the 15th. It was not horrible, it was good, but definitely not amazing, which is what I was expecting and hoping for. Indeed I was worried about crossing the creeks with Journey. Would she be able to even do that? Well, it was not really an issue at all.
We stopped at Ravine Falls first. Then to the viewpoint at Phantom Falls. Then we crossed over Phantom Falls and continued on, looking for another waterfall, however the creek was dry (disappointing). I did see a coyote, which was cool. Journey did not see it. We also saw a bunch of bones from an eaten cow. Someone had a feast (I assume it was a mountain lion, not the coyote, but who knows). Journey was very interested in sniffing all the bones. We came back to Little Phantom and Lower Ravine Falls, had our lunch at Lower Ravine Falls, then continued on back to the car. Journey did not want to cross the creek at the top of Lower Ravine Falls. It was not really that deep but I guess it was too deep for her and she could not see the bottom where she was stepping. We went upstream a bit and found a better crossing. It was a good 9 mile hike by the time we were all done. Journey was very tired and slept on the drive home (but was raring to go again once we got home). She did awesome on the hike. She was incredibly patient while I took photos of all the waterfalls. She listened well and was so happy. It was by far the best hike we have had thus far together.
As for the cows? We came close to them a couple of times. Journey was entranced. Can I go chase them, daddy? Pretty please? They certainly kept a close eye on her as we walked by. All in all, it was a fantastic birthday hike at North Table Mountain.
